Your VCR could become illegal.
The Senate Judiciary Committee is going to consider a bill on Thursday that would hold technology companies liable for any product they make that encourages people to steal copyright materials.
That means your VCR, CD recorder, DVD recorder, tape recorder and iPod could all become illegal. So could your memory stick, voice memo recorder, telephone answering machine, and get this : your video camera and digital and 35mm camera could also become illegal. Basically, anything you could use to record anything else in any medium, could be outlawed. Cameras can be used to "steal" copyright by photographing other's work. Audio recorders can be used to "steal" copyright because they record audio. And VCRs? Sweet mother of God - they record pictures and audio! Save us! That makes just about every man, woman and child on the planet a copyright-thieving miscreant in the eyes of the senator who backs this act. And who is that lovely man?
Why our very own Utah senator Orrin Hatch. The Inducing Infringement of Copyrights Act is being introduced in an effort to stop copyright infrigement. Critics of the bill call it the biggest threat to technological innovation in 20 years, since the landmark Betamax case.
(In the Betamax decision, the Supreme Court ruled that any technology that people use for legal purposes would be legal -- even if the device could be used for illegal purposes, like content piracy. Because of the ruling, the consumer electronics industry and Hollywood went on to develop a thriving market in home video and DVDs.)
One guess who the main supporting backer is for this bill.
Go on, guess.
Go on.
The RIAA.
That means your VCR, CD recorder, DVD recorder, tape recorder and iPod could all become illegal. So could your memory stick, voice memo recorder, telephone answering machine, and get this : your video camera and digital and 35mm camera could also become illegal. Basically, anything you could use to record anything else in any medium, could be outlawed. Cameras can be used to "steal" copyright by photographing other's work. Audio recorders can be used to "steal" copyright because they record audio. And VCRs? Sweet mother of God - they record pictures and audio! Save us! That makes just about every man, woman and child on the planet a copyright-thieving miscreant in the eyes of the senator who backs this act. And who is that lovely man?
Why our very own Utah senator Orrin Hatch. The Inducing Infringement of Copyrights Act is being introduced in an effort to stop copyright infrigement. Critics of the bill call it the biggest threat to technological innovation in 20 years, since the landmark Betamax case.
(In the Betamax decision, the Supreme Court ruled that any technology that people use for legal purposes would be legal -- even if the device could be used for illegal purposes, like content piracy. Because of the ruling, the consumer electronics industry and Hollywood went on to develop a thriving market in home video and DVDs.)
One guess who the main supporting backer is for this bill.
Go on, guess.
Go on.
The RIAA.
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